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Nearly 1,000 compensation advisers who manage the payroll of thousands of public servants across Canada have received long-anticipated notices that their jobs will disappear as their work is consolidated at a new $300-million pay centre in Miramichi, N.B.

The 2,000 pay or compensation advisers who worked in 110 departments across the country have been braced for the final round of “affected notices” – which were issued last week – since Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in 2010 that the new centralized self-service pay system would move to Miramichi. The announcement was a political tradeoff for the government’s plan to shut down the long-gun registry based there.

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The 989 pay advisers who received notices work in 22 departments that are part of the last two waves of pay accounts being transferred to Miramichi over the next 14 months. The National Capital Region was the hardest hit, with 362 advisers here receiving notices.

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The Public Service Alliance of Canada said employees who received affected notices can still opt to move to Miramichi but most will be looking for new jobs in the public service or an “alternation” process which would allow them to trade positions with other public servants who may be willing to give up their jobs.

“The government’s political decision to locate the pay centre in Miramichi has deeply impacted our members and is making the job of finding alternate employment a lot harder than it would otherwise be,” said PSAC vice-president Chris Aylward.

“We are working to ensure that as many of our members as possible remain employed in the public service. ”

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Public Works and Government Services is the government’s paymaster and has been gradually moving pay services from 57 departments and agencies to the new Miramichi pay centre since 2012. The centre will employ about 550 employees when fully operational in 2015. So far, fewer than 100 compensation advisers have pulled up stakes to move to Miramichi.

The consolidation of pay services is expected to provide better service, save $78 million a year and resolve the high turnover and attrition rates of compensation advisers that often caused delays in getting out payments.

The government’s plans to modernize its 40-year-old pay system was divided into two major projects. The first was to consolidate all pay services in Miramichi and transfer pay accounts. The transfer of 184,000 accounts should be completed by December 2015, giving affected employees time to find new jobs in the public service.

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The next project is to roll out a new IT system that is expected to transform and streamline how cheques are processed and people are paid. The government bought a new off-the-shelf system – known as Phoenix – that will be installed in departments that use PeopleSoft software to manage human resources.

The government has the largest payroll in the country. The pay system handles about nine billion transactions – worth about $17 billion a year – for 300,000 employees in 110 departments. The old system was also bogged down by so many complicated pay rules that public servants complained they waited months, even years, for raises or overtime payments and sometimes for regular pay.

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The Conservative government often singles out the modernization of its pay system, as well as a similar project in Shediac N.B. to overhaul pensions, as evidence of its drive to make the public services cheaper, better and more efficient. Harper even gave the Public Works senior bureaucrat who led the two overhauls – “on time and on budget” – the government’s top award.

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